Somniloquy
by Meret
Summary: Lois thinks about her relationship with Clark.


Title: Somniloquy  
Author: Meret  
Summary: Lois thinks about her relationship with Clark.  
Category: Drama, Futurefic  
Rating: PG  
Spoilers: Fanon  
Disclaimer: These characters are owned by Millar Gough,   
the WB, and DC Comics. No profit is intended.   
Archive: I'm sure I'll say yes, but please let me know so I   
can visit.   
Email: Feedback is hugged and squeezed and called George   
at meret118@netscape.net  
Web page:http://www.geocities.com/meretsv/  
"Thank you" to my wonderful betas La Reina and   
especially Tarchannon. The story was much improved  
by their input.   
Author's notes at the end.   
  
  
  
Lois grimaced as he did it again. It was becoming more and   
more frequent as their wedding got closer. Not that that   
meant anything, right? So what if she and Chloe were both   
reporters with a take no prisoners attitude and cuteness out   
the yinyang. It wasn't as if he'd asked her to dye her hair   
blonde or anything. He wasn't Jimmy Stewart, she wasn't   
Kim Novak, and the closest Metropolis came to San   
Francisco was the annual Gay Pride Parade.   
  
He did it again, louder this time, and she rolled to her side   
to stare at him in the faint light. His hair was sticking up,   
probably from when they'd made love earlier, and his   
mouth was open slightly in sleep. No, it didn't mean   
anything.   
  
She'd first met Clark at the funeral, but she'd heard about   
him for years before that from Chloe. She and Chloe were   
the only female cousins in the family, and being so similar   
in age and interests, they'd always been close. Chloe had   
told her when Clark had asked her out the first time, when   
they first shared an open-mouthed kiss, when they first told   
each other 'I love you', and when they lost their virginity   
together. They had dated all through high school and had   
both been accepted at Metropolis University. They had to   
live in the dorms their freshman year, but they'd managed to   
get assigned to the same hall, and Lois knew Chloe had   
planned to ask Clark to get an apartment with her off   
campus the following year.  
  
She and Clark had hugged each other at the funeral and   
expressed condolences, but Lois hadn't seen or even   
thought of him again until years later when he started   
working for The Planet. She certainly never would have   
predicted they would end up engaged. They were such   
opposites. His personality was so sunny plants leaned   
toward him when he walked down the street, and hers . . .   
wasn't. She was never surprised by the evils they reported,   
while Clark could still be shocked by human depravity and   
greed even after all this time as a journalist. They had been   
friends for years before anything remotely romantic   
developed.   
  
That seemed to be a pattern with Clark now that she   
thought about it. From little things he'd said, she knew he'd   
been involved in another serious relationship his senior year   
in college with a friend that had ended badly. He'd never   
mentioned any details though, and since she had a pretty   
good idea as to why, she hadn't pushed for once in her life.  
So the fact that he moaned her dead cousin's name in his   
sleep in a voice sexy enough to make the ice caps melt   
didn't mean she was just a substitute for his first love. It   
wasn't as if he'd ever said the wrong name while they were   
making love.   
  
That wasn't the worst of it anyway, she thought as she   
rolled away from him, curling around the pillow clutched to   
her chest. The worst was when he moaned Lex's name.   
  
Chloe she could understand. She'd loved Chloe, but . . .   
Lex? It wasn't the bisexuality that bothered her. Not once   
she was past the initial surprise, anyway. But Lex . . . Lex   
was everything she and Clark fought against. Lex was   
megalomania, and greed, and power at any price and,   
and . . . apparently Clark's lover at one time. She just   
couldn't wrap her mind around it. Not for lack of trying   
either. She wiped a tear away and hugged her pillow tighter.   
If Clark could get involved with someone like that, even for   
a while, then there was a side of him that she knew nothing   
about. A side that maybe, just maybe, could marry someone   
not for herself, but as a substitute for another.   
  
He had hidden his tights-wearing alter ego so well, for so   
long. At least he would talk about being Superman with   
her. Normally he's the one who wanted to talk about their   
feelings and their relationship. But he had big 'keep out'   
signs on those doors labeled Chloe and Lex. He'd made that   
abundantly clear the few times she'd mentioned Chloe, no   
matter how carefully she brought up his past. She hadn't   
even tried to mention Lex.  
  
She felt like Bluebeard's wife. How many metaphorical   
bodies were buried in those rooms of Clark's? What else   
was he hiding? She'd always hated that story - a misogynist   
lesson to teach the little woman not to seek knowledge.   
  
Her instincts . . . her instincts were telling her to beat down   
those doors no matter what, but would she survive what she   
found there? She let out a shuddering sigh. She would   
survive it. But would it be worth it? She had opened *all*   
her doors to Clark. Only Clark. Well, all her doors but the   
one containing these fears.   
  
She got out of bed and padded to the sliding glass doors,   
putting on her robe as she stepped out on the balcony. A   
faint, warm breeze stirred her hair. Even at this hour of the   
night, the light from the Metropolis skyline competed with   
the light from the stars. And of all those myriad little lights,   
natural and artificial, none held any answers for her.   
  
She looked back at Clark asleep in the bed. His beautiful,   
adored features were limned in soft gray through the glass   
door. She watched his lips move and cried.  
  
  
  
End  
  
  
Feedback:meret118@netscape.net  
  
  
Author's notes: In the movie Vertigo, by Alfred Hitchcock,   
Jimmy Stewart's character remakes Kim Novak's character   
into the image of a dead woman. It's set in San Francisco.   
  
The story of Bluebeard as I heard it: Bluebeard brought his   
bride home and gave her the keys to all the rooms in his   
house. He told her she was welcome to go in any of them,   
but one. Whatever she did, she must never go into that   
room. He went off to sea, and at first she ignored that room.   
Eventually, boredom and curiosity got the better of her,   
and she opened the door. Inside the room were the bodies   
of all his past wives. They had all opened the door as well.   
While she stood there in shock and terror, Bluebeard barred   
the door from the outside, shutting her in to die like the   
others. 


End file.
